December 7 - 2nd Sunday of Advent

Bellarmine University
"Christmas Was Not Stolen, We Abdicated"
Rev. Ronald Knott
December 7, 2014

Prepare his way! Make straight his paths!
Matthew 3

Last week the gentle Isaiah invited us to go up on the mountain of the Lord in order to be instructed in his ways so that we might be able to walk in his paths - instructed in his ways so that we may walk in his paths. This week we hear from a totally different personality than the gentle Isaiah. This week a fiery and uncompromising John the Baptist invites us to go into the desert to be cleansed of our sins in preparation for the imminent arrival of the world's Savior.

Mountains are places to look out and get a birds-eye view of things going on around us. Deserts are places to get a close-up view of the things going on within us. Both mountains and deserts are traditional places where our inner noises can be calmed, our senses heightened - places that help us better discern our priorities. Mountains and deserts are places where we can go to shut out the world and "hear ourselves thinking" as my mother used to call it when she wanted to clear her head.

Last week, we heard about Isaiah speak of "going to the mountain of the Lord" so that when he comes “he may find us doing right and being mindful of his ways.” "Going to the mountain of the Lord" is a metaphor for simply rising above the madness of the world: the hustle and bustle of Christmas that screams out for us to look here or look there, buy this or buy that, eat this or eat that, go here or go there! Advent is designed to be a time to "go up the mountain," to "rise above the madness" for four weeks so as to prepare our selves from the inside out - so that we can "get it" when the meaning of Christmas is proclaimed yet again! Without throwing cold water on the way we celebrate Christmas in this country, I simply tried to make the point that we need to do our homework first! We need to clean out our hearts before we clean our houses. We need to decorate our souls before we decorate our trees. We need to prepare ourselves to receive the spiritual gift of God's unconditional love before we start preparing to give our material gifts of love to each other. It's not a matter of one or the other. A "good" Christmas is a matter of both! We prepare our inside first and things outside second!

Last week the gentle Isaiah told us that we are invited up to the mountain of the Lord for a reason - "so that when God comes he may find us doing right and being mindful of his ways.” This week the fiery John likewise invites people to the desert "to be instructed in God's ways so that they could walk his paths." The huge crowds who came to be instructed by John were so moved by his message that they were inspired to make a complete about-face in the way they were living and begin to walk with God rather than away from him!

To be honest with you, all these invitations to be "instructed in the ways of God so that we may walk his paths" seem so irrelevant to a modern-day American Christmas where "more, bigger, brighter, noisier and flashier" seem to be the real message. Our speech gives us away! "They had over 150,000 lights in their lawn decorations." "You should have seen the table. It was literally breaking down with food!" "We consumed four cases of beer, a case of wine and eight bottles of champagne on Christmas Eve alone!" "I got everything the kids had on their list even though most of it is on my credit cards!" "We went all out this year! The whole family went on a cruise! We'll worry about the money later! You only live once!"

Christians! Somewhere along the line we lost our spiritual grip on Christmas and now others are defining it and shaping it for us! "The Grinch" did not steal Christmas! Commerce did not grab Christmas! Santa Claus and his Elves did not overpower Christmas! We abdicated! We pulled out! We handed it over! We surrendered it! We lost it - all because we tried to celebrate Christmas without doing the "inner work" of Advent! Because we do not do the "inner work" of Advent, when we do get to Christmas we are losing our understanding of what it really means! It's stupid to be mad at others for stealing it from us. We lost Christmas because we fell asleep - because we were not paying attention!

It's still not too late to "go up the mountain" and "out into the desert" for a few hours "to be instructed in his ways" so that we can "walk in his paths." It's still not too late for us as individuals to "reclaim Christmas." The best way to reclaim Christmas, in my estimation, is not by signing up for some silly, loud, organized campaign with signs and TV spots, but for one Christian at a time to silently reclaim it for himself and herself!